For Monday’s class, we discussed several news topics facilitated by: liquidbarley85, toasttalks, and buckeye1007. We wanted to focus on topics that would align with what he had been discussing in class while also not limiting ourselves to specific content.
Starting out for local news
The Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Department detained two juveniles in relation to threats made to the school/community last Wednesday. A 15 year old female and 16 year old male were both charged with threats to schools and adults.
Both students were taken to Juvenile intake in Woodstock. Officials have said they are on high alert after recent acts of school violence nationwide and that they are taking these issues very seriously whether the student says it is a joke or not.
National news
Trump Survives His Second Assassination Attempt in Two Months
On Sunday, September 15th, former President Donald Trump survived his second assassination attempt that took place almost two months apart to the day. President Trump was at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach Florida when secret service agents noticed an AK-style rifle sticking out of a bush 400 yards away from the former president.
The Secret Service fired upon the suspect forcing him to leave the scene. The suspect left many suspicious materials on the site. The man was stopped in a nearby county shortly after by law enforcement where he displayed a calm, emotionless demeanor.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-assassination-attempt-what-to-know-564c56e167c3cdc6c50f6a2e91db9a6c
For Global news
Rape crisis in the Congo
Nearly 500,000 people are displaced from the war and live in a camp on the Congolese border. Roughly 80% of the women in the camp have been raped. These women have to travel through the jungle to scavenge for food and other necessities they have little to no access to. These trails in the jungle are where the women are attacked. Political leaders have been trying to stop the use of rape in wars for the past decade with little success.
This article provides a lot of rich history and information about the situation affecting so many women and children in the Congo. They have direct quotes from 5 women about their experiences and they hope that speaking out will help stop the crisis.
https://www.wsj.com/world/africa/congo-war-rape-crisis-d83b3c52?mod=hp_lead_pos7
China allows Kanye West perform
This is something that has been denied to Maroon Five and even Bon Jovi. Fans are confused as to why the Chinese government would allow this considering his controversial reputation. Since government authorities have increased control on speech many high profile artists have been unable to perform in the country. It is believed to be because of the struggling Chinese economy recovering from the pandemic. However, there was a lot of strong backlash from Taylor Swift fans in China because of her and Ye’s long-standing feud. They are angered by the fact that a male artist, who has been in the media less in the past year or so, was granted the right to perform when she has not announced any dates in China for her worldwide eras tour.
https://www-nytimes-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/2024/09/15/world/asia/ye-kanye-west-china.html
Discussion
The local and national topics sparked a great discussion about gun control and violence off the back of the chapters we read from Hood Feminism (Kendall, 2021), that were about gun and domestic violence from a feminist perspective.
The two global topics opened up ideas concerning women’s liberties compared to those men have the privilege of doing. Between Kanye and the military generals in the Congo, it shows how men still benefit from a patriarchal system.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 